


Discourse In Ink

by atti (attilatehbun)



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: M/M, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-15
Updated: 2012-05-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 10:42:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attilatehbun/pseuds/atti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tattoo hurt, but it also felt weirdly good in a way Billy wasn't expecting, and for a while after it's done he felt sharp, strong, like he could remake the world. And while that part is technically true, it doesn't normally feel as light as this. Usually it's a heaviness that makes him feel like he could fall through the earth at any moment, but this-- This. This felt like he could leave it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discourse In Ink

**Author's Note:**

> Something of a companion piece to [Of Metal Rings and Other Things](http://archiveofourown.org/works/405505), though they can be read independently.

::

So, yeah, okay, Billy maybe sort of kind of cheats.

  
 _Okay_ , fine, so not maybe at all, he totally cheats. But it's reasonable and completely fair, because he doesn't have Teddy's healing factor, he _has_ to wait, for completely real, non-arbitrary reasons, and while he might still be _completely fucking terrible_ at healing spells, one thing he _is_ good at is disguise. So while he can't just be all " _Ta-da!_ with a perfectly healed tattoo the same day he gets it, he _can_ cast a glamour over the tattoo to make it look like the same unbroken patch of skin it was before.

See, the tattooing itself only took about an hour - it's not a very complicated design - and yeah, it hurt, but it also felt weirdly good in a way Billy wasn't expecting, and for a while after it's done he felt sharp, strong, like he could remake the world. And while that part _is_ technically true, it doesn't normally feel as light as this. Usually it's a heaviness that makes him feel like he could fall through the earth at any moment, but this-- This. This felt like he could _leave_ it.

But then the initial endorphin rush faded, and what’s left after is nothing but counting down day after day, each one building on the anticipation to keep him buoyed up. And that's...that’s still pretty damn good. The excitement of picturing Teddy's face when all is revealed, the thrill when Teddy unknowingly touches the secret when moving Billy out of the way in their tiny kitchen, those things keep that feeling alive. (Granted, after a day, he's wishing he'd thought to glamour the tattoo as a bruise instead of plain skin, because the spell doesn’t do anything to mask Billy’s wince whenever Teddy accidentally elbows him or rolls over in his sleep, and a bruise would at least give him justification. Though, that probably wouldn't work anyway, because Teddy not commenting on Billy's uncharacteristic locking of the bathroom door for secret tattoo maintenance is one thing, but he always takes special notice of any time Billy gets knocked around in a fight and he'd definitely be suspicious of a suddenly appearing bruise. And they haven't been in any serious fights in a while anyway, so yeah, pointless.)

That excitement, that anticipation is great for Billy, it’s _always_ great for Billy, but it’s not what he wants from Teddy. Billy doesn't want Teddy to have to wait while he heals. He wants to feel Teddy's surprise and shock and instant reaction to what he's done. He wants that immediate burst of uncontrolled, unchecked, unmeasured feelings to wash over him, full force. Billy knows that for himself it's always the test of control making the inevitable loss so much sweeter, but Teddy, if left to his own devices, will layer more and more care and analysis over that initial response, searching for the right way to express it, until any glimpse of it is muted and dull. Billy wants sharp.

So. Billy cheats a little, Billy hides, and Billy keeps it to himself. He holds on to the rush of what he's done folding over and into what he knows is coming and keeps the surprise for Teddy. He’s not sure how much of this feeling is the same for Teddy - probably not most of it - but for Billy it's like he's gotten his powers all over again and before even the first day passes Billy is sure this isn't a one time deal. And if he bites Teddy's nape piercings a little harder than usual that night, as if to say he gets it, well, no one is exactly complaining.

::

Teddy beats Billy home on what he's mentally dubbed T-Day. It feels weirdly appropriate to come home and kick the snow off his boots to the sound of Teddy puttering around in the kitchen, and Billy's heart rate ratchets up approximately seventeen notches as he hangs up his coat. Teddy's head appears out of the fridge, followed shortly by a bunch of collards.

"Hey, these okay for dinner? I don't remember when we bought them, they look okay," Teddy says.

Billy thinks the spell to himself and covers passing his hand over his side with a deliberate shirt straightening. "They're probably fine," he says. "Just, please, don't put maple syrup on them again."

"It tastes _good_ ," Teddy says, face pulling an exaggerated pout.

"It tastes _nasty_ ," Billy says. "If you want to keep being weird and put it on yours, that's your business, but keep it away from me."

"I'm sorry you can't appreciate my culinary genius," Teddy says, smiling when Billy finally manages to extricate himself from his boots and socks and pads into the kitchen.

"Is that what we're calling it then?" Billy grins. "But hey, put those down a sec, I want to show you something."

Teddy tosses the greens onto the counter and leans back against it, arms crossed, and Billy swallows. Somehow his hands are suddenly shaking.

"I," Billy starts, then realizes words aren't the right thing for this. So he hooks a thumb in the waistband of his jeans and boxers and pulls until his entire hipbone juts out, exposed.

Teddy drops his arms forward and curls forward like all the air has just been pushed out of his body. One hand carefully pushes the tail of Billy's shirt all the way out of the way, the other curls around Billy's hip, fingers not quite brushing Billy's tangled in his waistband. Not quite, but almost touching the ink of Billy's tattoo.

The tattoo’s angled away from Billy's groin, not towards, the thick lines sliding away off his hipbone down towards his thigh, because yeah, Billy’s not entirely innocent in regards to his choice of placement, but he’s also not really, he wasn’t…yeah. His thumb tightens on his jeans, tugging just a little more.

“So, what, were you feeling, like, lacking in the crotch arrow department?” Teddy asks, but his voice is creaky, cracking, and his fingers on Billy’s hips are doing that feathery thing Teddy does when he thinks he might not be able to control himself enough not to just crush Billy’s bones, jumping them.

"Excuse me, the arrow is goes _away_ , thank you," Billy says. Which it is, the point of the simple, empty speech bubble points outward, so it doesn't look like his dick is talking. Sure, his dick may be talking _right now_ , but that is entirely contextual and what it's saying is nothing he would ever let someone tattoo on him.

"So we're being pedantic, are we?" Teddy says in that same creaky voice, and Billy is glad that neither the Kree nor the Skrulls have heat vision with the way Teddy is staring at his skin.

"It's because—" Billy starts, his own voice unsteady.

"N-no, I. I think I get it," Teddy says, then his thumb is pressing full into the void inside the bubble and he's pushing all the way forward and kissing Billy with enough force that it sends Billy backwards into the opposite counter.

Billy grabs for Teddy's belt loops to pull him in the rest of the way because, yes. _Yes_. This is what he was waiting for, that initial rush before Teddy can start to be careful. He thrusts his tongue into Teddy's mouth gladly, licking deeper, tasting his heart in his throat.

When Teddy pulls abruptly out of the kiss, Billy barely has the chance to get out a dazed "Wha?" before Teddy is dropping hard to his knees, and oh _fuck_.

Teddy waits just long enough to ask, "It's healed?" and for Billy to mumble "Yeah," then his mouth is searing its way over the lines.

Billy lets out a " _Hnnng_ " and gropes for Teddy's hair with one hand, flailing backwards for the counter with the other one because otherwise he is going to fall the fuck over. This is nowhere near the first time Teddy's mouth has been in that exact spot - and the tattoo did not leave his skin any more sensitive than it ever was - but everything about this situation is playing right into Billy's nerves. Teddy sucks hard, runs his tongue over the top curve, and tilts his head enough to look up at Billy, tongue still pressed against the dark blue line, and _fuck_ , Billy's entire body must be made of hyperbole because he is suddenly absolutely certain that he has never been harder in his life.

"Oh god, is _this_ what it's like?" he gasps, fingers tightening in Teddy's hair.

Teddy mumbles, "Hmm?", mouth occupied with grazing the point of the speech bubble with his teeth, but Billy doesn't really need an answer. Teddy's hand is kneading Billy's other hip, each squeeze pulling his jeans tighter across his erection and is spontaneous combustion a thing? Billy really hopes that with his powers it's not an actual thing.

" _Fuck_ , Teddy," he mutters and bucks against Teddy's mouth, against Teddy's tongue tracing the lines of the tattoo.

Teddy looks up at Billy again, lips dragging against skin, and he groans deep from his chest in a really sort of desperate way. "Is this what it's like?" he says, hushed, into the empty space of the tattoo.

He leans in again, tongue hot as it licks flat over the entirety of the speech bubble, and his hand fumbles with Billy's fly. Billy can't see Teddy's eyes anymore, but he can feel Teddy's shoulders shaking beneath his fingers and he can feel where Teddy's instincts take him, freed from the pressure of control.

Then Billy's pants are sliding down his legs, then his boxers, and Teddy's teeth are digging into the thoroughly slick skin of his hip.

"Christ, Billy," Teddy says as his hand slides up Billy's stomach, too fast as he gropes for Billy's ribs, presses his thumb to Billy's sternum, and several buttons pop off and scatter across the dingy linoleum. He nuzzles into Billy's groin, cheekbone rubbing Billy's cock. "I can't—"

Billy brings a hand to Teddy's neck, rubs his thumb behind his ear. "Then don't," he says. Teddy groans, low and long, then slams Billy's hips back against the counter, hard, and before Billy can even gasp Teddy has his mouth around Billy's cock, lips already sliding down, tongue already wreaking havoc as it works against the head. His thumb circles the edges of the tattoo.

"Ohgod," Billy says and bucks before he can think to stop. And Teddy goes with it, Teddy takes it, his only reaction fingernails digging into Billy's chest and scraping. Then he slides down even further, _fuck_ , lips wrapped around the base of Billy's cock, that's it, that's everything, and Billy thrusts again, fingers tugging at the piercings at the base of Teddy's neck, because _ohfuckohfuckohfuck_.

Teddy swallows and presses his thumb deep into the tattoo and Billy groans, and Billy bucks, and Billy has no place to go, and Billy is going to come right here, in the kitchen with his shirt half unbuttoned and his pants around his ankles and Teddy _fully clothed_ , and that is not what he wants at all.

He makes himself let go of Teddy, which turns out to be incredibly difficult (and hey, point for largely invulnerable boyfriends because he was definitely clutching Teddy's shoulder hard enough to _really fucking hurt_ , judging by the ache in his fingers when he lets go), and gets his hand around the base of his cock to give himself a squeeze.

"Teddy, _nnnng_ , Teddy, I'm going to come, I don't want to come, I don't—" he says and pushes back against the counter.

So Teddy pulls off, wet and slow and seemingly forever, then leans back in again until the head of Billy's cock is just resting against his lips. His swollen, slick lips, pink against bruised pink, the flare of Billy's cockhead _just_ catching on the bar through his lip as he breathes, and his thumb is still circling the ink on Billy's hip and Billy shudders, has to squeeze the base of his cock again to not come all over Teddy's face.

"Fuck, Teddy, that," Billy pants, then stops, because he left his ability to process this a long way back. Instead, he grabs Teddy by the ears and pulls him to standing, pulls him deep into a kiss that's open and hard and really really filthy with the taste of himself in Teddy's mouth. Teddy's pants are rough against his cock, entirely the wrong kind of friction, but he doesn't even care because Teddy's erection is straining against his and Teddy's thumb is pressing into his tattoo like he just can't let it go. Billy pulls enough out of the kiss to breathe into Teddy's mouth. "Fuck," he says again, eyes shut tight, "I really need you to take all your clothes off now."

"I can do that," Teddy says, his voice rough and his hands already pushing at his pants to get them off. Billy kicks his own jeans away and spends approximately one second contemplating undoing the rest of his buttons before giving the shirt up as a lost cause and just pulling the whole thing over his head.

By the time Billy's done, Teddy's hands are already back on his hips, rubbing over the tattoo, but Teddy's shirt is still on.

"You are the _worst_ ," Billy says, but even so he has to stop his own hands from reaching for Teddy's hip piercing instead of the hem of Teddy's t-shirt in order to yank it off.

"Yes, yes, totally the worst, bed now, please," Teddy says, ducking in to kiss Billy's collarbones even as he crab-walks Billy backwards to the bedroom.

Somehow they make it all the way to the bed, and Billy considers it a minor miracle that neither of them goes careening into any sharp and/or fragile furniture along the way. One minute they're standing and the next they're sprawled over the mattress, and Billy's not entirely sure who took who down but he's definitely sure he doesn't care. Not with Teddy already reaching out for Billy's cock and his tattoo again. Billy hasn't even gotten them arranged the way he wants them, so he rolls them both around until they're on their sides pressed against each other, until he can get Teddy's cock in his mouth too. Teddy groans against Billy's thigh at Billy's first lick, and Billy grins around the thick length of him when his first tug at Teddy's hip piercing makes Teddy's cock jerk.

"Oh look - _ah_ \- two can finally— finally play at that game now," Teddy says, deliberately positioning each word so his lips vibrate against the tattoo. Billy just tightens up his mouth and lets Teddy's gasp blend in with the ink.

Teddy keeps up with his teasing as Billy sucks, teases at Billy's sac with his fingers, teases at Billy's tattoo with teeth and tongue over the lines, only leaning in with the barest hint of breath at Billy's cock, and the feel of it has Billy groping well beyond words. Teddy nips at the edge closest to Billy's cock and _oh fuck_ , he is still so dangerously close to coming. Billy swirls his tongue around the head of Teddy's cock, moans around it and stokes the base until Teddy whines into his hip.

"Can you—" Teddy says and bends his knee just the slightest bit more to bring his legs further apart.

Billy can - wants to, _god_ he wants to - so he brings his hand up until he can slide his thumb between his lips alongside Teddy's cock and licks until it's good and wet. He hollows his cheeks to keep the pressure up when he finally pulls his thumb away to move his hand between Teddy's legs, reaching back. Teddy parts his legs even more and licks a stripe up Billy's cock that has him shuddering, eyes crossing behind his lids, and Billy has to pause and tense and find his breath again. When Billy presses his thumb back into Teddy's cleft and rubs a wet circle around him, Teddy actually _whimpers_ around Billy's cock before abruptly swallowing him all the way down to the root.

And oh _shit_ , fuck, that— Billy thrusts in Teddy's mouth but he can't get any deeper and he can't focus on his hand, can't focus on Teddy's cock shallowly moving against his palette, can't even really focus on Teddy's fingers pressing deep into his tattoo, because he's coming down Teddy's throat and trying not to shoot lightning out of his skin like he's a teenager again.

Then he's panting against Teddy's thigh, Teddy's cock hot against his cheek, as he tries to put the world back together around himself. Teddy is coughing a little as he pulls back from Billy's cock, and Billy looks down his body to see his throat working, face flushed and chest shining with sweat.

" _Fuck_ , Billy," he says and tilts his hips back just a little, catching Billy's thumb and pressing against it, and what can Billy do about that except bend it, push the wet tip inside of Teddy until Teddy's body jerks and his head drops back. Billy leans up on his shoulder to lick once at Teddy's hip piercing, tongue circling each of the studs in turn, before giving in to the naked look on Teddy's face and kissing his way back around Teddy's cock.

He lets Teddy set his own rhythm, lets Teddy fuck his mouth steadily and matches him stroke for stroke with the firm pressure of his thumb. Teddy is loud against Billy's hip, fingers clutching at Billy's thighs and back as he thrusts, and right before he comes he bites down on the tattoo, the inside of the oval, and Billy lets the shudder pass through him as he swallows.

Billy lets Teddy go when he starts shifting like it's too sensitive and flops back against the mattress. Somehow he's ended up with his head at the end of the bed, but fixing that would require moving, and he's apparently forgotten how moving works.

"I forget how moving works," he announces to the ceiling and Teddy laughs from the head of the bed. He does this weird flop upright flop down thing that looks way more graceful than it has any right to and settles in next to Billy, ankles knocking and head against Billy's chest. Billy can feel his eyeline like a weight on his hip. He pillows his head on his arm and looks down his body to where Teddy is just starting to circle fingers around his tattoo again.

"So I didn't do too bad for my first, huh?" Billy says.

"Not too bad at all," Teddy says, fingertips brushing over the point of the word bubble. "Can I write things in it?"

Billy's huff of a laugh ruffles Teddy's hair. "That depends. What kind of things are you thinking?"

"Oh you know," Teddy says. "Grocery lists, reminders, passive aggressive notes when you forget to do the laundry, that sort of thing."

"I will draw _all_ over you in Sharpie," Billy says, and a brief tickling match ensues that thankfully stops before Billy squirms his way out from underneath Teddy's head or all the way off the bed.

Once they've resettled, Billy runs a hand over Teddy's shoulder. "I'm sorry you can't get one," he says.

Teddy shrugs under Billy's hand. "It's okay, I figure it out one day. I'm glad you can get them." His fingers pick back up over the lines.

Billy watches Teddy's hand. His dick is lying soft and spent against his thigh, but the movement of Teddy's fingers is making him want to be hard again. "Me too," he says softly.

Most people looking at his tattoo would assume that it's just because he's a comic book nerd. A word balloon for the intern at a comics house, what could be more expected? And yeah, that's fair, and it's probably a big reason that Billy chose this particular shape to hold his idea. But it's more than that too.

Words have always had a lot of power in Billy's life. People used to use words to hurt him, and he turned around and used words to hurt himself until he learned how to turn it all outward, something to attack with. Then his powers came, and the things he said became layered with control upon control, change and focus but also the need to be on his guard because the words that helped some also hurt others, sometimes at the same time. His words could be anything, and Billy had to learn to choose even more carefully than before.

It's why the word balloon is empty. It's why he trusts that Teddy knows what the really means, why he doesn't need to explain it. Words have come to mean infinite possibility to Billy in a way most people could never hope to understand. Teddy understands that infinite possibility, he's understood it longer than Billy has. How possibility is both sides of the fence at once. There's a lot of good to it, but it's terrifying in all the ways you can lose yourself.

So Billy left the tattoo empty for all the words he can say, all the words he doesn't say and the things he doesn't make with them, for all the choices hi has yet to make. They're all there in that small, blue-inked oval, with lines around them so that Billy can keep his control close to him. So he can keep potential from overwhelming him.

"Me too," Billy says again, seeing Teddy _get it_ as Teddy watches his own hand move against the ink.

Billy's stomach rumbles then, and Teddy drags his nails across the skin of Billy's belly. "Sounds like it's time for collard greens and maple syrup," Teddy says.

"Ugh," Billy groans and tries to shove Teddy off him, because there are _some_ things he will never understand.

But Teddy just heaves himself up and over, until he's bracketing Billy's body with hands and knees. His grin is still loose and free, expectation still not creeping in around the edges.

"Don't argue with the chef," he says and drops a quick kiss on Billy's mouth. Then he's scrambling off the bed and heading for the kitchen, bareass and not giving a single fuck.

Billy groans and calls out after him, "I'm firing you and hiring a decent one, FYI!"

"I completely believe you," Teddy yells back and Billy just grumbles to himself.

He lays there a few more minutes, rubbing his hand thoughtfully over the tattoo. He's glad he got the tattoo, he's glad that Teddy understands it, he's glad that his collards won't have any maple syrup on them, and he's glad that Teddy doesn't care enough about what Billy thinks to let it stop him smothering his own in the stuff.

Eventually he gets up and pads back through the apartment, just as bareass as Teddy and for once not caring either. He did leave his boxers in the kitchen, but he's probably not going to put them back on. They'll probably just get in the way if he wants to drag Teddy back to bed after they eat.

"What are you thinking about?" Teddy says, pausing in pulling the maple syrup from the fridge.

Billy smiles. "Not much," he says. "Just possibilities."

:: fin ::


End file.
